(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a floppy disk assembly, and more particularly to a floppy disk mounting/dismounting mechanism in the floppy disk assembly equipped with a capacity discrimination means.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, e floppy disk assembly did not have a means to detect a capacity discrimination hole (hereinafter referred to as "hole detection means") which is provided in the vicinity of a head window shutter of the floppy disk having the date storage capacity of, for example, over 10 MB. In such a conventional assembly which did not have the hole detection means, the floppy disk mounting/dismounting mechanism is disposed et the location where the hole detection means should be located.
FIG. 1 shows in plan view an example of the conventional floppy disk assembly. A sliding plate 2 is slidably mounted on an assembly frame 1a. In FIG. 1, when the floppy disk 23 is pushed into a cassette holding plate (not shown), an abutment surface 24 of the floppy disk 23 directly pushes en abutting portion 26 of a lock member 7a. Other than those arrangements which relate to or associated with the floppy disk mounting/dismounting mechanism, the general configuration of the conventional floppy disk assembly shown in FIG. 1 is the same as or similar to that of the assembly according to the present invention. Thus, the explanation for such general configuration and operation, which will be made with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, is omitted here.
Since the floppy disk mounting/dismounting mechanism is subjected to pressure when a press button mounted on a push-button fixing portion 29 is actuated by the operator for dismounting or releasing the floppy disk from the floppy disk assembly, it is desirable that the mounting/dismounting mechanism and the press button be disposed on the same straight line. Thus, for providing the hole detection means in a way to meet such a desire, it becomes necessary to have the mounting/dismounting mechanism disposed at a location symmetrically opposite with respect to the center line of the assembly, that is the opposite or the left hand side, and also to have the press button moved to the same opposite side.
However, where the mounting/dismounting mechanism and the press button are moved to the left hand side, the operator must manipulate the press button with his left hand, which is inconvenient as it is normally desirable for the operator to be able to press the press button with his right hand.
Further, in order to arrange that the hole detection means be positioned at the location where the mounting/dismounting means in the above explained conventional arrangement is located, it is necessary to move the mounting/dismounting mechanism to a location which is further inside from the front panel side of the assembly in actual use (i.e., upper portion in the drawings). However, if such a change is to be made in the conventional arrangement, the location is which the floppy disk is actually mounted end the location of the mounting/dismounting mechanism will be apart from each other, in which case the mounting/dismounting mechanism cannot perform a proper interlocking operation simultaneously with the insertion of the floppy disk.